Utility aims to rebuild by charging victims of wildfire
A utility company wants to charge hundreds of Gatlinburg, Tenn., customers to rebuild a water service system they haven’t used since their homes burned down in last year’s deadly wildfires.
Tennessee Water Service Inc., a subsidiary of the Illinois-based Utilities Services Inc., filed a petition with the state’s Public Utility Commission on Sept. 25.
The petition seeks approval to charge inactive customers $24.81 per month — up from $0 — and active customers $69.15 per month — up from $58.60 on average — to “recover the costs of providing drinking water service during the period of recovery” from November’s firestorm, according to a Sept. 22 letter sent to residents.
“I understand they need to rebuild everything,” said Jenny Laurer, a TWS customer whose home was reduced to ash. “… We all have to rebuild everything. Why is that our responsibility, though?
“It feels like everybody’s getting thrown under the bus for no reason. We didn’t do anything wrong. We’re being treated like we did something horrible, and we’re just trying to get by.”
For TWS to increase rates for its customers in the Chalet Village community, the state’s Public Utility Commission must approve its petition. The company requested a hearing date of Oct. 23.
Three days after TWS filed its petition, the Consumer Advocate and Protection Division of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office filed a petition to intervene.
That means the hearing will be contested, explained Tim Schwarz, director of communications for the Public Utility Commission.
The commission will appoint a hearing officer to coordinate the discovery process, during which both sides will exchange evidence.
A panel of three commissioners — in this case, David Jones, Robin Morrison and Keith Jordan — will act as both judge and jury. They will decide whether to approve or deny the rate increase.
On Nov. 28, 2016, wildfires driven by hurricane-force winds roared through Gatlinburg and the surrounding Sevier County communities, killing 14 people and damaging or destroying more than 2,400 structures.
Roughly 90 percent of TWS’ 587 customers in Chalet Village lost their homes in the fires, leaving 57 active customers, according to the petition.
After the fires, TWS put a hold on all bills until March 31. The company’s president said in a letter to customers that the goal was “to eliminate at least one small concern from your minds.” After March 31, billing resumed for active customers.
Since the fires, 76 customers have restarted service. About 130 active customers and 440 inactive customers received the company’s Sept. 22 letter detailing the proposed fee changes, spokeswoman Deborah Clark said.
The fires have been “extremely detrimental to TWS’ revenue,” the petition says. The company projects a net operating loss of $72,201 for the 2017 fiscal year, and estimates the cost of repairing its infrastructure to be $300,000.
The fee changes, if approved, could last up to 18 months and would yield roughly $220,000 in additional funds, if the numbers of active and inactive customers were to remain the same.
But some Gatlinburg property owners said alleviating TWS’ financial troubles shouldn’t be their responsibility.
Darlene Renee said she called TWS the day after the fires to shut off her water service. After all, the home on Chestnut Drive she’d been renting and working toward purchasing was gone.
She said TWS’ customer service told her “not to worry,” that service had already been shut off because firefighters used all the water the day before.
Renee moved to Pigeon Forge and someone else bought the property — still with no home on it — in January. She, her fiance and their children recently moved back to Gatlinburg, to a new property with access to well water.
Yet she said she found three letters from TWS in her post office box.
“Why are we being charged for water when one, we don’t own the property, and two, there’s nowhere for the water to go?” Renee asked.
“How do you do that? To me, that’s disgusting. That’s like robbery. It should be illegal.”
Clark, the TWS spokeswoman, said the company is researching Renee’s “concern.”
Resident Michael Luciano, whose properties were spared in the fires, said the proposed charges would “hurt the rebuilding of the community here. It’s going to hurt people who are already hurting. Where is the insurance for the company?”
Luciano said Chalet Village residents are “all” looking into boycotting TWS by digging their own wells.
Most property owners live out of state, he said, and do not plan to rebuild. Instead, he said they will “let their property sit there,” and the TWS bills will accrue until the lots are sold.
“There is no clear outcome at this point in time for non-payment,” Clark said, adding that TWS is “still evaluating insurance coverage issues at this time.”
Contact Travis Dorman at 865-342-6315 or at travis. dorman@knoxnews.com.